MIAMI — Boston Celtics swingman Jayson Tatum was named the inaugural Larry Bird award winner as the MVP of the NBA Eastern Conference finals at the conclusion of the series Sunday.

Tatum, 24, wore Kobe Bryant’s armband as the Celtics beat the Miami Heat 100-96 in Game 7, and he delivered one of the most important performances of his career — scoring 26 points, grabbing 10 rebounds and adding 6 assists in 46 minutes. Tatum came into Game 7 averaging 24.8 points, 8 rebounds and 5.5 assists and repeatedly made big plays when the Celtics needed them.

Tatum’s consistency throughout the series set him apart. Night after night, he delivered in key moments, especially late in Game 7 as he hit several big jumpers and made strong defensive plays against Heat star Jimmy Butler. Tatum and Butler shared a handshake and a hug at center court after the series finale, displaying the mutual admiration that was apparent all series.

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With the Bird trophy under his belt, Tatum has finally delivered the Celtics back to the NBA Finals, where he now has a chance to cement his Boston legacy. Game 1 against the Golden State Warriors is Thursday in San Francisco.

While Tatum earned the Bird award, it was Butler’s performance that might last even longer in the annals of history. The 32-year-old scored 35 points and grabbed nine rebounds in Game 7 — and came into the defining contest averaging 24 points, 6.7 rebounds and 3.8 assists in the series.

Butler’s series was made even more impressive by the fact that he dealt with right knee soreness off and on throughout the last week, and missed the second half of Game 3 because of ongoing issues with the knee. Throughout the series, Butler imposed his will on the game and carried the Heat to victories. In Miami’s Game 1 win, Butler racked up 41 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists in 41 minutes. In Game 6, with the Heat on the verge of elimination, Butler played arguably the best game of his career, scoring 47 points, grabbing 9 rebounds and dishing out 8 assists in front of a raucous Boston crowd to deliver the Heat into Game 7.

In the end, it was Tatum who got the best of Butler and the Heat — and got some revenge for Miami’s triumph in the 2020 Eastern Conference finals.

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MIAMI — Nothing about this Boston Celtics season has been easy. So, it stands to reason, making it to the NBA Finals wouldn’t be, either.

But at the end of a grueling seven-game series in the Eastern Conference Finals against the Miami Heat, that is exactly where the Celtics have returned to once again.

Behind a pair of terrific games from Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, Boston won its third game at FTX Arena in this series, escaping with a 100-96 victory over the Heat in front of a sellout crowd that was thrilled by the exploits of the home team right to the game’s dying moments.

Ultimately, though, it wasn’t enough to prevent Boston from taking revenge on Miami after the Heat won this matchup two years ago. And with the win, the Celtics advanced to the NBA Finals for the first time in 12 years, where they’ll face the Golden State Warriors. The series will begin Thursday night at 9 ET on ABC at Chase Center in San Francisco.

Getting there, though, was excruciating — right down to nearly blowing a seven-point lead with a minute to play. But after Boston made one mistake after another in that final minute, including Brown being called for a charge, Marcus Smart flinging up a contested miss and Max Strus burying a 3-pointer to pull Miami to within two points with 44 seconds to go, Jimmy Butler — who had an otherworldly series, including an all-time great performance in Game 6 — pulled up for a 3-pointer on the break with a chance to take the lead with 17 seconds that every soul in this building not wearing green thought was going in.

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But it didn’t. And after Smart hit a couple of free throws with 11.4 seconds to go, Boston managed to just escape with its season still alive, and a trip to San Francisco and a date with the Warriors on the agenda.

At every turn, the Celtics have made things as difficult for themselves as possible – and that’s not even considering the fact that, as deep into the season as late January, it would’ve been unthinkable for Boston to be in this position. After a loss at TD Garden to the Portland Trail Blazers on Jan. 21, the Celtics were 23-24, had been playing .500 basketball for more than a season and a half and had an offense ranked among the bottom 10 in the NBA.

“We weren’t even thinking that far down the road honestly,” Celtics coach Ime Udoka said before Game 6. “We were thinking about getting healthy, understanding the system we were trying to put in place. We always had glimpses of success … we did see good things early on at times.

“We played really good against the big teams. We had some poor losses against some of the lesser teams. For the most part we were competing against the best teams. That boded well for the future.”

No one, however, would’ve envisioned what was about to happen. From that Portland loss through the end of the regular season, Boston was the NBA’s best team. It posted a record of 28-7, and had the NBA’s best offensive rating and defensive rating by significant margins. Boston’s net rating was a staggering plus 15.5 points per 100 possessions — almost double the Memphis Grizzlies (8.1) in second.

That allowed Boston to go from a team that was simply trying to stay in the NBA’s play-in tournament spots to one that finished the season as the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference. From there, the Celtics swept the Brooklyn Nets and survived a seven-game slugfest with Giannis Antetokounmpo and the defending NBA champion Milwaukee Bucks to make it to a sixth Eastern Conference finals in the past 11 seasons.

“I think we finally flipped the script, got healthy at the right time, and here we are,” Udoka said.

“Here” was in the Eastern Conference Finals against the Heat, a team that has grown to reach the level of the Los Angeles Lakers and Philadelphia 76ers in this historic franchise’s pantheon of foes. It’s the fifth time in 13 years the two teams have played in the playoffs — including the third time in the East Finals.

In what was a topsy-turvy series that, heading into Game 7, saw each team win on the other team’s home court twice through the first six games, with Boston controlling Games 2 and 5 here at FTX Arena while the Heat had impressive closing stretches to win Games 3 and 6 at TD Garden.

But unlike two years ago, when these teams met in the Eastern Conference finals inside the NBA’s bubble at Florida’s Walt Disney World Resort and Miami emerged victorious in six games, this time it was the Celtics who escaped with their season alive after being pushed to the absolute brink by the Heat — thanks to some truly incandescent performances by Butler, led by his 47-point, 9-rebound, 8-assist masterpiece in Game 6 to send this series back here for a do-or-die Game 7.

After Miami got off to a strong start on the road in Game 6, Boston turned the tables in Game 7. The Celtics held the Heat without the field goal for more than three minutes to start the game, and leapt out to a 20-7 advantage halfway through the first quarter on a straightaway 3-pointer from Tatum. Boston then closed the quarter with another 8-2 run, after Miami had gotten back to within 9, to give the Celtics a 32-17 lead after 1.

From there, Boston continued to employ the strategy that, when this team has played well in this series, has allowed it to repeatedly throttle the Heat: by playing suffocating defense at one end, and not turning the ball over at the other. In particular, when Boston took care of the ball in this series, things went very well for the Celtics. And in this one, Boston took care of the ball.

In opening up that early lead, the Celtics only committed two first quarter turnovers. And as they kept playing crisp basketball, they were able to maintain their advantage, even while Jimmy Butler had his latest fantastic performance in these playoffs just to keep Miami within contact.

Unfortunately for Butler, he couldn’t find anyone but Bam Adebayo to come along for the ride. In the first half, Heat players not named Butler or Adebayo were a combined 3-for-16 from the field.

Still, after Derrick White hit a 3-pointer with 4:30 to go in the half and Boston up 50-34, the Heat closed the half on a 15-5 run — including drawing three on-the-floor fouls with Boston in the bonus inside the final minute of the half that became five free points — to pull to within 55-49 at the halftime break.

It was a flattering scoreline for the Heat, given the struggles of everyone around Butler. But it had the home crowd celebrating, and breathed life into a Miami team that, earlier in the half, felt like it was hanging on by the slimmest of threads.

But like in the first half, the Celtics were the ones to start things off well in the third. After Miami kept Boston at a bogged down pace in the second quarter, the Celtics sped the game back up in the third, and prospered as a result.

Yet despite Boston again controlling play for most of the quarter, by the end of it, the score had hardly changed, as the Celtics took a seven-point lead into the fourth quarter thanks to Adebayo and Butler continuing to excel.

And when the Heat opened the fourth quarter with a pair of baskets to close the deficit to 82-79, Celtics coach Ime Udoka called a quick timeout with 10 minutes, 56 seconds remaining and the entire crowd standing and chanting.

But when the teams came back onto the court after that timeout, the Celtics used their defense to, once again, take the life out of the building. For more than four minutes, the Heat went without a single point, as Boston scored eight straight to push the lead back to double digits once again.

And the Heat, while continuing to fight valiantly, simply ran out of gas, becoming the latest team to be slowly ground down by the physicality of the Celtics over the course of a seven-game series.

But only by the slimmest of margins.

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MIAMI — Nothing about this Boston Celtics season has been easy. So, it stands to reason, making it to the NBA Finals wouldn’t be, either.

But at the end of a grueling seven-game series in the Eastern Conference Finals against the Miami Heat, that is exactly where the Celtics have returned to once again.

Behind a pair of terrific games from Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, Boston won its third game at FTX Arena in this series, escaping with a 100-96 victory over the Heat in front of a sellout crowd that was thrilled by the exploits of the home team right to the game’s dying moments.

Ultimately, though, it wasn’t enough to prevent Boston from taking revenge on Miami after the Heat won this matchup two years ago. And with the win, the Celtics advanced to the NBA Finals for the first time in 12 years, where they’ll face the Golden State Warriors. The series will begin Thursday night at 9 ET on ABC at Chase Center in San Francisco.

Getting there, though, was excruciating — right down to nearly blowing a seven-point lead with a minute to play. But after Boston made one mistake after another in that final minute, including Brown being called for a charge, Marcus Smart flinging up a contested miss and Max Strus burying a 3-pointer to pull Miami to within two points with 44 seconds to go, Jimmy Butler — who had an otherworldly series, including an all-time great performance in Game 6 — pulled up for a 3-pointer on the break with a chance to take the lead with 17 seconds that every soul in this building not wearing green thought was going in.

2 Related

But it didn’t. And after Smart hit a couple of free throws with 11.4 seconds to go, Boston managed to just escape with its season still alive, and a trip to San Francisco and a date with the Warriors on the agenda.

At every turn, the Celtics have made things as difficult for themselves as possible – and that’s not even considering the fact that, as deep into the season as late January, it would’ve been unthinkable for Boston to be in this position. After a loss at TD Garden to the Portland Trail Blazers on Jan. 21, the Celtics were 23-24, had been playing .500 basketball for more than a season and a half and had an offense ranked among the bottom 10 in the NBA.

“We weren’t even thinking that far down the road honestly,” Celtics coach Ime Udoka said before Game 6. “We were thinking about getting healthy, understanding the system we were trying to put in place. We always had glimpses of success … we did see good things early on at times.

“We played really good against the big teams. We had some poor losses against some of the lesser teams. For the most part we were competing against the best teams. That boded well for the future.”

No one, however, would’ve envisioned what was about to happen. From that Portland loss through the end of the regular season, Boston was the NBA’s best team. It posted a record of 28-7, and had the NBA’s best offensive rating and defensive rating by significant margins. Boston’s net rating was a staggering plus 15.5 points per 100 possessions — almost double the Memphis Grizzlies (8.1) in second.

That allowed Boston to go from a team that was simply trying to stay in the NBA’s play-in tournament spots to one that finished the season as the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference. From there, the Celtics swept the Brooklyn Nets and survived a seven-game slugfest with Giannis Antetokounmpo and the defending NBA champion Milwaukee Bucks to make it to a sixth Eastern Conference finals in the past 11 seasons.

“I think we finally flipped the script, got healthy at the right time, and here we are,” Udoka said.

“Here” was in the Eastern Conference Finals against the Heat, a team that has grown to reach the level of the Los Angeles Lakers and Philadelphia 76ers in this historic franchise’s pantheon of foes. It’s the fifth time in 13 years the two teams have played in the playoffs — including the third time in the East Finals.

In what was a topsy-turvy series that, heading into Game 7, saw each team win on the other team’s home court twice through the first six games, with Boston controlling Games 2 and 5 here at FTX Arena while the Heat had impressive closing stretches to win Games 3 and 6 at TD Garden.

But unlike two years ago, when these teams met in the Eastern Conference finals inside the NBA’s bubble at Florida’s Walt Disney World Resort and Miami emerged victorious in six games, this time it was the Celtics who escaped with their season alive after being pushed to the absolute brink by the Heat — thanks to some truly incandescent performances by Butler, led by his 47-point, 9-rebound, 8-assist masterpiece in Game 6 to send this series back here for a do-or-die Game 7.

After Miami got off to a strong start on the road in Game 6, Boston turned the tables in Game 7. The Celtics held the Heat without the field goal for more than three minutes to start the game, and leapt out to a 20-7 advantage halfway through the first quarter on a straightaway 3-pointer from Tatum. Boston then closed the quarter with another 8-2 run, after Miami had gotten back to within 9, to give the Celtics a 32-17 lead after 1.

From there, Boston continued to employ the strategy that, when this team has played well in this series, has allowed it to repeatedly throttle the Heat: by playing suffocating defense at one end, and not turning the ball over at the other. In particular, when Boston took care of the ball in this series, things went very well for the Celtics. And in this one, Boston took care of the ball.

In opening up that early lead, the Celtics only committed two first quarter turnovers. And as they kept playing crisp basketball, they were able to maintain their advantage, even while Jimmy Butler had his latest fantastic performance in these playoffs just to keep Miami within contact.

Unfortunately for Butler, he couldn’t find anyone but Bam Adebayo to come along for the ride. In the first half, Heat players not named Butler or Adebayo were a combined 3-for-16 from the field.

Still, after Derrick White hit a 3-pointer with 4:30 to go in the half and Boston up 50-34, the Heat closed the half on a 15-5 run — including drawing three on-the-floor fouls with Boston in the bonus inside the final minute of the half that became five free points — to pull to within 55-49 at the halftime break.

It was a flattering scoreline for the Heat, given the struggles of everyone around Butler. But it had the home crowd celebrating, and breathed life into a Miami team that, earlier in the half, felt like it was hanging on by the slimmest of threads.

But like in the first half, the Celtics were the ones to start things off well in the third. After Miami kept Boston at a bogged down pace in the second quarter, the Celtics sped the game back up in the third, and prospered as a result.

Yet despite Boston again controlling play for most of the quarter, by the end of it, the score had hardly changed, as the Celtics took a seven-point lead into the fourth quarter thanks to Adebayo and Butler continuing to excel.

And when the Heat opened the fourth quarter with a pair of baskets to close the deficit to 82-79, Celtics coach Ime Udoka called a quick timeout with 10 minutes, 56 seconds remaining and the entire crowd standing and chanting.

But when the teams came back onto the court after that timeout, the Celtics used their defense to, once again, take the life out of the building. For more than four minutes, the Heat went without a single point, as Boston scored eight straight to push the lead back to double digits once again.

And the Heat, while continuing to fight valiantly, simply ran out of gas, becoming the latest team to be slowly ground down by the physicality of the Celtics over the course of a seven-game series.

But only by the slimmest of margins.

Read More

MIAMI — Boston Celtics swingman Jayson Tatum was named the inaugural Larry Bird award winner as the MVP of the NBA Eastern Conference finals at the conclusion of the series Sunday.

Tatum, 24, wore Kobe Bryant’s armband as the Celtics beat the Miami Heat 100-96 in Game 7, and he delivered one of the most important performances of his career — scoring 26 points, grabbing 10 rebounds and adding 6 assists in 46 minutes. Tatum came into Game 7 averaging 24.8 points, 8 rebounds and 5.5 assists and repeatedly made big plays when the Celtics needed them.

Tatum’s consistency throughout the series set him apart. Night after night, he delivered in key moments, especially late in Game 7 as he hit several big jumpers and made strong defensive plays against Heat star Jimmy Butler. Tatum and Butler shared a handshake and a hug at center court after the series finale, displaying the mutual admiration that was apparent all series.

2 Related

With the Bird trophy under his belt, Tatum has finally delivered the Celtics back to the NBA Finals, where he now has a chance to cement his Boston legacy. Game 1 against the Golden State Warriors is Thursday in San Francisco.

While Tatum earned the Bird award, it was Butler’s performance that might last even longer in the annals of history. The 32-year-old scored 35 points and grabbed nine rebounds in Game 7 — and came into the defining contest averaging 24 points, 6.7 rebounds and 3.8 assists in the series.

Butler’s series was made even more impressive by the fact that he dealt with right knee soreness off and on throughout the last week, and missed the second half of Game 3 because of ongoing issues with the knee. Throughout the series, Butler imposed his will on the game and carried the Heat to victories. In Miami’s Game 1 win, Butler racked up 41 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists in 41 minutes. In Game 6, with the Heat on the verge of elimination, Butler played arguably the best game of his career, scoring 47 points, grabbing 9 rebounds and dishing out 8 assists in front of a raucous Boston crowd to deliver the Heat into Game 7.

In the end, it was Tatum who got the best of Butler and the Heat — and got some revenge for Miami’s triumph in the 2020 Eastern Conference finals.

Read More

The Golden State Warriors are the favorites in the NBA Finals over a Boston Celtics team looking to make underdog history.

Caesars Sportsbook installed the Warriors as -160 favorites over the Celtics (+140) in an intriguing best-of-seven series that tips off Thursday in San Francisco. Golden State opened as a 3-point favorite in Game 1 on Thursday.

The Warriors entered the season at 10-1 to win the championship at Caesars Sportsbook and were among the title favorites throughout the year. They knocked off the Dallas Mavericks in five games to reach their sixth NBA Finals in the past eight years, a feat accomplished by only three other NBA franchises: the Chicago Bulls, Los Angeles Lakers and the Celtics.

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While Golden State was among the top tier of title favorites, Boston began the season as a 50-1 long shot. Based on preseason odds, the Celtics would be the biggest long shot to win a title in the past 35 years, according to sports betting archive SportsOddsHistory.com.

Boston found its rhythm in the second half of the regular season and survived two Game 7s in the Eastern Conference playoffs to reach the Finals.

The Warriors and Celtics split their season series, each winning on the other team’s home court. Boston is the only team with a winning record against the Warriors since Golden State coach Steve Kerr took over in 2015-16.

Some big bets on each team are on the line heading into the NBA Finals. Two weeks ago, a bettor in Arizona placed a $25,000 bet on the Celtics to win the championship at 10-1 odds. The bet would pay a net $250,000 if Boston wins the title. In late October, a bettor in Iowa placed a $12,000 bet on the Warriors to win the championship at 10-1. The bet would pay a net $120,000. Both bets were placed with Caesars Sportsbook.

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The Golden State Warriors are the favorites in the NBA Finals over a Boston Celtics team looking to make underdog history.

Caesars Sportsbook installed the Warriors as -160 favorites over the Celtics (+140) in an intriguing best-of-seven series that tips off Thursday in San Francisco. Golden State opened as a 3-point favorite in Game 1 on Thursday.

The Warriors entered the season at 10-1 to win the championship at Caesars Sportsbook and were among the title favorites throughout the year. They knocked off the Dallas Mavericks in five games to reach their sixth NBA Finals in the past eight years, a feat accomplished by only three other NBA franchises: the Chicago Bulls, Los Angeles Lakers and the Celtics.

1 Related

While Golden State was among the top tier of title favorites, Boston began the season as a 50-1 long shot. Based on preseason odds, the Celtics would be the biggest long shot to win a title in the past 35 years, according to sports betting archive SportsOddsHistory.com.

Boston found its rhythm in the second half of the regular season and survived two Game 7s in the Eastern Conference playoffs to reach the Finals.

The Warriors and Celtics split their season series, each winning on the other team’s home court. Boston is the only team with a winning record against the Warriors since Golden State coach Steve Kerr took over in 2015-16.

Some big bets on each team are on the line heading into the NBA Finals. Two weeks ago, a bettor in Arizona placed a $25,000 bet on the Celtics to win the championship at 10-1 odds. The bet would pay a net $250,000 if Boston wins the title. In late October, a bettor in Iowa placed a $12,000 bet on the Warriors to win the championship at 10-1. The bet would pay a net $120,000. Both bets were placed with Caesars Sportsbook.

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MIAMI — Nothing about this Boston Celtics season has been easy. So, it stands to reason, making it to the NBA Finals wouldn’t be, either.

But at the end of a grueling seven-game series in the Eastern Conference Finals against the Miami Heat, that is exactly where the Celtics have returned to once again.

Behind a pair of terrific games from Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, Boston won its third game at FTX Arena in this series, escaping with a 100-96 victory over the Heat in front of a sellout crowd that was thrilled by the exploits of the home team right to the game’s dying moments.

Ultimately, though, it wasn’t enough to prevent Boston from taking revenge on Miami after the Heat won this matchup two years ago. And with the win, the Celtics advanced to the NBA Finals for the first time in 12 years, where they’ll face the Golden State Warriors. The series will begin Thursday night at 9 ET on ABC at Chase Center in San Francisco.

Getting there, though, was excruciating — right down to nearly blowing a seven-point lead with a minute to play. But after Boston made one mistake after another in that final minute, including Brown being called for a charge, Marcus Smart flinging up a contested miss and Max Strus burying a 3-pointer to pull Miami to within two points with 44 seconds to go, Jimmy Butler — who had an otherworldly series, including an all-time great performance in Game 6 — pulled up for a 3-pointer on the break with a chance to take the lead with 17 seconds that every soul in this building not wearing green thought was going in.

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But it didn’t. And after Smart hit a couple of free throws with 11.4 seconds to go, Boston managed to just escape with its season still alive, and a trip to San Francisco and a date with the Warriors on the agenda.

At every turn, the Celtics have made things as difficult for themselves as possible – and that’s not even considering the fact that, as deep into the season as late January, it would’ve been unthinkable for Boston to be in this position. After a loss at TD Garden to the Portland Trail Blazers on Jan. 21, the Celtics were 23-24, had been playing .500 basketball for more than a season and a half and had an offense ranked among the bottom 10 in the NBA.

“We weren’t even thinking that far down the road honestly,” Celtics coach Ime Udoka said before Game 6. “We were thinking about getting healthy, understanding the system we were trying to put in place. We always had glimpses of success … we did see good things early on at times.

“We played really good against the big teams. We had some poor losses against some of the lesser teams. For the most part we were competing against the best teams. That boded well for the future.”

No one, however, would’ve envisioned what was about to happen. From that Portland loss through the end of the regular season, Boston was the NBA’s best team. It posted a record of 28-7, and had the NBA’s best offensive rating and defensive rating by significant margins. Boston’s net rating was a staggering plus 15.5 points per 100 possessions — almost double the Memphis Grizzlies (8.1) in second.

That allowed Boston to go from a team that was simply trying to stay in the NBA’s play-in tournament spots to one that finished the season as the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference. From there, the Celtics swept the Brooklyn Nets and survived a seven-game slugfest with Giannis Antetokounmpo and the defending NBA champion Milwaukee Bucks to make it to a sixth Eastern Conference finals in the past 11 seasons.

“I think we finally flipped the script, got healthy at the right time, and here we are,” Udoka said.

“Here” was in the Eastern Conference Finals against the Heat, a team that has grown to reach the level of the Los Angeles Lakers and Philadelphia 76ers in this historic franchise’s pantheon of foes. It’s the fifth time in 13 years the two teams have played in the playoffs — including the third time in the East Finals.

In what was a topsy-turvy series that, heading into Game 7, saw each team win on the other team’s home court twice through the first six games, with Boston controlling Games 2 and 5 here at FTX Arena while the Heat had impressive closing stretches to win Games 3 and 6 at TD Garden.

But unlike two years ago, when these teams met in the Eastern Conference finals inside the NBA’s bubble at Florida’s Walt Disney World Resort and Miami emerged victorious in six games, this time it was the Celtics who escaped with their season alive after being pushed to the absolute brink by the Heat — thanks to some truly incandescent performances by Butler, led by his 47-point, 9-rebound, 8-assist masterpiece in Game 6 to send this series back here for a do-or-die Game 7.

After Miami got off to a strong start on the road in Game 6, Boston turned the tables in Game 7. The Celtics held the Heat without the field goal for more than three minutes to start the game, and leapt out to a 20-7 advantage halfway through the first quarter on a straightaway 3-pointer from Tatum. Boston then closed the quarter with another 8-2 run, after Miami had gotten back to within 9, to give the Celtics a 32-17 lead after 1.

From there, Boston continued to employ the strategy that, when this team has played well in this series, has allowed it to repeatedly throttle the Heat: by playing suffocating defense at one end, and not turning the ball over at the other. In particular, when Boston took care of the ball in this series, things went very well for the Celtics. And in this one, Boston took care of the ball.

In opening up that early lead, the Celtics only committed two first quarter turnovers. And as they kept playing crisp basketball, they were able to maintain their advantage, even while Jimmy Butler had his latest fantastic performance in these playoffs just to keep Miami within contact.

Unfortunately for Butler, he couldn’t find anyone but Bam Adebayo to come along for the ride. In the first half, Heat players not named Butler or Adebayo were a combined 3-for-16 from the field.

Still, after Derrick White hit a 3-pointer with 4:30 to go in the half and Boston up 50-34, the Heat closed the half on a 15-5 run — including drawing three on-the-floor fouls with Boston in the bonus inside the final minute of the half that became five free points — to pull to within 55-49 at the halftime break.

It was a flattering scoreline for the Heat, given the struggles of everyone around Butler. But it had the home crowd celebrating, and breathed life into a Miami team that, earlier in the half, felt like it was hanging on by the slimmest of threads.

But like in the first half, the Celtics were the ones to start things off well in the third. After Miami kept Boston at a bogged down pace in the second quarter, the Celtics sped the game back up in the third, and prospered as a result.

Yet despite Boston again controlling play for most of the quarter, by the end of it, the score had hardly changed, as the Celtics took a seven-point lead into the fourth quarter thanks to Adebayo and Butler continuing to excel.

And when the Heat opened the fourth quarter with a pair of baskets to close the deficit to 82-79, Celtics coach Ime Udoka called a quick timeout with 10 minutes, 56 seconds remaining and the entire crowd standing and chanting.

But when the teams came back onto the court after that timeout, the Celtics used their defense to, once again, take the life out of the building. For more than four minutes, the Heat went without a single point, as Boston scored eight straight to push the lead back to double digits once again.

And the Heat, while continuing to fight valiantly, simply ran out of gas, becoming the latest team to be slowly ground down by the physicality of the Celtics over the course of a seven-game series.

But only by the slimmest of margins.

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CHICAGO — White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson left Sunday’s game against the Cubs after fielding a ground ball in the top of the fifth inning.

Anderson, 29, fell to the ground after throwing catcher PJ Higgins out at first base. He limped off the field with the help of the White Sox training staff with an apparent leg or groin injury.

Anderson went 1 for 2 with a first-inning single and ranks among the league leaders with a .356 batting average.

Anderson is hitting .356 as an offensive catalyst for the second place Sox who are in the midst of another injury riddled season. The team is currently without stars Luis Robert (COVID-19), Eloy Jimenez (hamstring), Yoan Moncada (hip) and starter Lance Lynn (knee). In fact, Jimenez had to leave is first rehab game in the minors on Saturday.

Infielder Danny Mendick replaced Anderson at shortstop.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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